1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a steel wire hook for fastening a gasket, a sealing element or the like on an installation plane, which is generally used on the sealing element of the door of the oven, refrigerator, microwave oven and some heating equipments.
2. Description of Related Arts
There are the tubular gaskets at the peripheral edge of the door of the oven, refrigerator, microwave oven and some heating equipments. These gaskets mainly act as the sealing members, and also the other members. These gaskets consist of the framework which is woven by the metallic wire and has good flexibility and the outer casing which is woven by the insulating materials. It has been proved that this structure can be applied in the continuous high-temperature self-cleaning oven, and simultaneously, the gasket can provide good sealing performance in spite that the oven door is repeatedly switched-on/off for many years.
In generally, this tubular gasket is installed to the door of the heating equipment by the independent hook for connecting the gasket with the door. The hook consists of the head and the base which is perpendicular to the head. The base of the hook is woven or inserted into the gasket, and the head of the hook is inserted into the installation hole of the door of the oven, thereby installing the gasket onto the door of the oven.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,107,623 provides a solution. However, after installing the hook into the gasket, it is difficult to take off the hook without any damage to the gasket. If the hook is forcibly taken off, the casing woven by the insulating materials and provided outside the gasket will be damaged, and the sealing performance of the gasket will be seriously affected. In this solution, the hook only can be installed into the gasket by the machine while weaving the glass fiber. During the weaving process, once a hook has the problem, the whole gasket is useless. Furthermore, no intersection or connecting point exists between the framework with the good flexibility and the other elements, so the framework is inclinable to slide out of the outer casing or displace relative to the outer casing. Therefore, while adopting this solution, two ends of the whole gasket must be fastened by another member.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,124,540 provides another solution. While installing the hook with the elliptic bottom and a short tail to the gasket, it is prone to adhere the tail to the exterior wall of the gasket, which causes the whole gasket to be depressed at a position where the hook is located, so that the sealing performance is affected. The effect is fatal to seal the heat chamber of the heating device. Also, due to the tail, while installing the gasket to the oven door, it is possible for the operator to be injured by the tilting tail. Furthermore, it is difficult for the hook provided by this solution to be directly inserted into the gasket while weaving the gasket.
Furthermore, in the solution provided by the U.S. Patent No. 2009/0144949, the base is circular. The base has one or more protuberances. The plane where the protuberances are provided is parallel to the plane where the head portion of the hook is provided. The head portion of the hook provided by this solution can rotate along the axis of the neck and the top portion after installing the hook into the gasket, which will bring great puzzle to the operator. Also, in the solution, while the hook is installed to the installing plane, the tail end of the wire of the base is extruded to be tilted, so the probability that the operator is injured by the tail end of the wire of the base can not be avoided during the actual installation process. In addition, in the solution, the base of the hook is circular, after the gasket is installed to the installation plane, the diameter of the base of the hook has a transverse extrusion to the gasket, so that the cross section of the gasket turns to be an irregular shape, which will directly result in the invalidation of the sealing of the heat chamber of the heating appliance.
In the U.S. Patent No. 2008/0256793 A1, the base of the hook is processed to be spirality. The base of the hook, having an approximately thread-shape, is formed by twisting the wire for 2-3 circles. Furthermore, the base has a tail portion extended along the circumferential direction or towards the center of the base and tilted. The metallic wires of the base are close to each other and no gap among the wires is provided, so that while installing the hook to the gasket, the outer casing of the gasket is inclinable to be damaged, which will lead to the invalidation of the sealing performance of the heat chamber of the heating appliance. In addition, the hand of the operator is easily injured by the tilted tail.